# Teamcast Dr. Preston Cline, Dr. Dan Dworkis, Dr. Art Finch and Harry Moffit of the Mission Critical Team Institute share research and explore the questions vexing the most elite teams in the world, from Special Operations soldiers to Firefighters, from Trauma Medics to Professional Athletes, and from Astronauts to Tactical Law Enforcement. Page: Feed: --- ## [S6 Ep 16 Dr. Anna Simons: The Anthropology of Mission Critical Teams (Recast)](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/anna-simons-recast) _2026-08-10_ This week we're recasting Preston's conversation with Dr. Anna Simons from May 2023. Anna retired as a Professor of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and an A.B. from Harvard College. She is the author of Networks of Dissolution: Somalia Undone and The Company They Keep: Life Inside the U.S. Army Special Forces . She… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/a8217264-b636-4fa4-8066-50f99a47ab48.mp3) ## [S6 Ep15 Sara (Mills) Kerr - Once a Bushfire Volunteer, Now an AI Researcher](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/sara-mills-kerr) _2026-07-27_ Sara (Mills) Kerr is a firefighter with Fire and Rescue New South Wales and a PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle, researching the trustworthiness of AI-generated information in disaster and emergency management decision-making. Before the fire service, she worked as an e-commerce data analyst, until Australia's 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires redirected her path. Instead of returning to… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/e54c0266-a7f1-469a-a68f-f78c56fd4d7e.mp3) ## [S6 Ep14 A Better Approach to After-Action Reviews](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/better-approach-to-aars) _2026-07-13_ A few years ago, senior FBI SWAT team leader Matt Hoffman called Preston after a fatal operation. To assist the team in working through the loss, Preston and Matt used a process that went beyond the standard after-action review by incorporating narrative inquiry. The goal was to let a fractured team's story come back together before anyone examined what went wrong, rather than extracting lessons… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/1b44ee02-5a3c-4b15-bc09-9b898d38c01a.mp3) ## [S6 Ep13 Christine Stead on Systems of Innovation in ECMO](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/christine-snead) _2026-06-29_ Christine Stead is the CEO of ELSO: the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization. ELSO is the premier global nonprofit for ECMO and ECLS, connecting providers, researchers, and regulatory agencies across 66 countries and nearly 800 contributing centers worldwide. Earlier this year, Dan's conversation with Thomas Preston explored trust and communication at the bedside. They discussed what it takes… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/59126f79-17f9-465d-835f-c0d58dcaf4f1.mp3) ## [S6 Ep12 The Neuroscience of Operator Development (Recast)](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/s6-ep12-the-neuroscience-of-operator-development-recast) _2026-06-15_ This conversation originally aired December 6, 2022. Dr. Michael Platt is a Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania and holds joint appointments at the Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the Wharton School. He is the founder of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative and the author of The Leader's Brain . Preston and Michael… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/413f9491-4a3e-43b7-a533-c33a23e8618d.mp3) ## [S6 Ep11 Marius Aleksa on Why Curiosity is Key for Human Performance](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/marius-aleksa) _2026-06-01_ We're continuing our conversation on human performance by asking why some performers keep improving under pressure while others hit a ceiling. One of the most powerful answers is curiosity. In this Teamcast, released in partnership with The Emergency Mind Podcast , Dan talks with Marius Aleksa, a performance advisor who has coached elite performers across professional baseball, special operations,… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/ccc05487-f266-4d28-b88f-3d4eb7480661.mp3) ## [S6 Ep10 Character, Creativity, and the Machine](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/andy-walshe) _2026-05-18_ Andy Walshe has spent his career at the frontier of human performance, from Australia's post-Sydney Games high-performance system, through a decade at Red Bull, to his current work with Liminal Collective across elite sport, government programs, and executive development. His assessment of where the field actually stands: about a ten out of a hundred. Harry and Andy dig into what that means. They… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/75016076-3747-4eef-9098-495cd8784ef4.mp3) ## [S6 Ep9 Denis Leary on Residue, Six Years On](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/denis-leary) _2026-05-04_ Six years ago this week, on May 7, 2020, we released our first Teamcast on Residue . In that episode, Preston shared a conversation with Coleman Ruiz on the psychological and emotional substance left behind after choosing the hard path. The episode, and the paper that grew out of it , traveled further than we expected. Eight operators have since told us that paper is the reason they are still… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/bd7dd12f-5a92-459d-870f-124628bf5f3e.mp3) ## [S6 Ep8 Adam Milano on Teamwork as Ensemble Art](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/adam-milano-ensemble-art) _2026-04-20_ What do theater, crisis response, military service, and social work have in common? More than you might guess. Adam Milano, faculty at UNC's School of Social Work, a military veteran, and theater-trained performer, joins Dan Dworkis to discuss how high-performance teamwork under pressure looks a lot like ensemble art. In this episode: You can't turn off the human part — and you shouldn't Invisible… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/023ddbe5-fd87-43a8-b659-b77ffadf37cb.mp3) ## [Zuverlässiges Hosting, Domains, Server (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/A6EFQ1uck9yy) _2026-04-20 · **Sponsored**_ Zuverlässige Infrastruktur, niedrige Preise und skalierbare Server für deinen Webauftritt. ## [S6 Ep7 Coach, Don't Profess: Theory-to-Practice Transfer in Mental Performance](https://teamcast.missioncti.com/episode/ceci-craft) _2026-04-06_ Ceci Craft has worked inside two of the most demanding performance cultures in the world — Army Special Operations and Major League Baseball. She's currently the Philadelphia Phillies' Director of Mental Performance, Life Skills, and Education, leading a staff of seven coaches across their MLB affiliates and the organization's academy in the Dominican Republic. When she made the move from working… [Listen](https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/eff8dc5a-cd1c-44cb-9fa8-ee6748e79335.mp3)